THE LITHUANIAN TATARS

The self-designation of the ethnic group is simply Tatars and the neighbouring
people also refer to them as such. In literature they are more often referred
to as the Lithuanian Tatars, Byelorussian Tatars, Polish Tatars, Byelorussian
Muhammadans and Byelorussian Muslims. Some Polish authors have used the
term lipiki, and Turkish and Crimean Tatar sources of the 19th century
have called them lupkalar or lupka tatarlar. The origin of lipki/lupka
is not clear. As the habitat of these Tatars is mostly the former Lithuanian
Grand Principality, they are primarily known as Lithuanian Tatars.

Habitat. Today the Lithuanian Tatars live in the western part of the Minsk
Region of Byelorussia, in the region northeast of Brest and in the Grodno
Region. Small enclaves are found in southeast Lithuania and in Kaunas,
as well as in the eastern and western parts of Poland.

Population. There has been no ethnic census of the Lithuanian Tatars under
the Soviet regime, so their number is unknown. An approximate estimate
of their number in Byelorussia and Lithuania is 7,000--8,000 (according
to L. Cherenkov 1983). It is recorded that the overall number of Tatars
on Lithuanian territory at the time of the 1897 census was 4,500 and in
1989, 5,100. Unfortunately it is not clear how many of them were Lithuanian
Tatars.

Language. In the middle of the 16th century the Lithuanian Tatars apparently
gave up Turkish and started to speak Byelorussian. Some intellectuals took
up Russian and Polish in the middle of the 19th century.

The origins of the Lithuanian Tatars are particularly interesting. According
to their legends they are the descendants of the wanderers far from the
Baltic coast -- Nogays and Crimean Tatars -- who were brought to Lithuania
as prisoners of war. Indeed, in 1397 several thousand prisoners of war
were taken and they settled in the Vilnius area and on the territory of
the present-day Minsk and Grodno Regions. Tokhtamysh, the famous Golden
Horde khan and thousands of his warriors, defeated by Tamerlane (Timur),
fled to Lithuania a year later. He became the ruler of the present-day
Byelorussian town, Lida. In 1430 Prince Shvitrigalis of Lithuania summoned
the Kypchaks and Nogays from beyond the Volga to his military service and
3,000 remained in his army. The number of so-called Tatars continued to
swell in various ways (prisoners of war, refugees). Their fate has been
peculiar. As the newcomers were only men and there were no Muslim women
in Lithuania, they had to marry Christians, although their descendants
were considered to be Islamic. It was quite common for a husband to adopt
the Christian surname of his wife. The elite of the migrants enjoyed equal
rights with the Polish-Lithuanian nobility, other Tatars made up a special
social entity of the Lithuanian Principality. They had certain obligations
such as the 'Tatar Service', which meant that they were obligated to join
the army, fully armed and on horseback, at the first call of the State.
The Tatar military in return enjoyed certain privileges. Just like the
nobility they were exempt from paying tax on the land they owned and they
had complete religious freedom. In the 16th--17th centuries the nobility
tried to curb their rights but the united Poland and Lithuania had to pay
dearly for the folly. In the campaign against the Ukraine the Lithuanian
Tatars fought on the side of the enemy. In 1659 the Lithuanian Seimas restored
all their rights and privileges. In 1775 the last discriminative restrictions
were abolished and the majority of Tatars became full-fledged Polish-Lithuanian
nobility. By that time mixed marriages had taken their toll and the Tatars
spoke Byelorussian. However, their Islamic faith (Sunnite) had helped them
to retain an ethnic identity. The Tatars had their own mosques and clergy.
It is interesting to note that they resorted to Arabic script when writing
Polish or Byelorussian texts, adding some diacritical marks to denote the
specific Byelorussian sounds. All the ecclesiastical literature, the Koran
included, was published in Arabic with parallel Byelorussian translations.
The Arabic script was widely known and it was taught at Tatar village schools.
Islam set the rules and regulations for everyday Tatar life (holidays,
the observance of Friday, food etc.) but, at least in the 19th century,
they were not rigorously followed and concessions were made for local peculiarities.
For example, the women were comparatively free, the polygamy characteristic
of Muslims did not exist, and the children attended coeducational schools.
Although they did not eat pork, vodka and tobacco, otherwise prohibited
for Muslims, were quite common. They retained some characteristic eating
habits and many Tatar dishes have been integrated into traditional Lithuanian
cooking. The Tatars did not differ from other people in their dress or
in their architecture but certain peculiarities could be observed at home.
Mosques and minarets added an Eastern flavour to the Tatar settlements.

No noticeable changes in Tatar social status or in their fields of activity
took place after the incorporation of their settlements into Russia. The
martial arts had lost their importance but many Tatars preferred military
service or work in the police to anything else. The rural Tatar population
started to pay more attention to farming, especially vegetable growing.
They were also good at carpentry. In towns the Tatars were active in all
spheres of life. In the second half of the 19th century and especially
at the beginning of the 20th many Tatars became intellectuals.

After World War I the Lithuanian Tatars became citizens of one of three
countries -- the Soviet Union, Poland or Lithuania. The ethnic and religious
undertakings of Tatars in Poland and Lithuania went on as before but in
the Byelorussian SSR everything changed. The same occurred in Lithuania
after the Soviet occupation of 1940. The first mosque was reopened only
in 1990.

Naturally, the absence of all nationalist activities considerably damaged
the ethnic integrity of the Tatars and they were assimilated by the Byelorussians
(quite easily so, there being no language barrier). The same happened in
socialist Poland. The process was further abetted by intermarriages and
a lessening of interest in national heritage, especially by the intelligentsia.